Saturday, July 1, 2017

Excerpt: The Girl I Didn't Marry

Prologue: 2009

Nick

Cops make me
nervous.

I see the officer
from all the way across the night club—he’s not dressed in his usual uniform of
the sky blue dress shirt and navy blue slacks, but I recognize his bald head
and black goatee from seeing him on his neighborhood beat. I know all the cops
around here by sight. They come to my club a lot, and I make sure they have a
good time. A really good time.

There’s no reason
to think he’s here to shut the club down. There’s even less reason to think
he’s going to arrest me. But still, I’m nervous. I don’t want to end up in
jail. My father and my brother have been there before, but not me. Not yet.

“Can I get you
another drink, Mr. Moretti?”

I look up at the
pretty waitress standing in front of me. Her white-blond hair hangs loose
around her shoulders, and like all the other girls in the club, she’s dressed
in practically nothing. A tiny string bikini bites into the curves of her white
thighs and pushes her tits together and up in the air. Not much is left to the
imagination.

“I’ll have another
beer,” I tell her. I nod in the direction of the cop, “And give my friend over
there another of whatever he’s drinking. Tell him it’s on the house, courtesy
of Nick Moretti.”

The waitress nods
and hurries off, eager to please. I’m not just her boss—I’m her boss’s boss. And
I bet she’s sick of waiting tables and wants more than anything to get up on
the stage. Maybe she sings. Or maybe she dances—she sure got the body for it.

I loosen my tie
with my thumb so I can breathe easier. It’s warm in the club and I think about
taking off my suit jacket, but I leave it on. This suit cost more than any
waitress here earns in a month and I don’t want it wrinkled. I always take my
father’s advice:

You dress important and people treat you
like you’re important.

I always listened
to Pop’s advice. I still do, even now that I’m more successful than he ever
was.

Only a few
minutes later, the waitress is delivering a drink to the off-duty cop. I watch
her gesture in my direction. This is from
Nick Moretti. He owns this place. And by the way, a bunch of your buddies are
probably on his payroll.

I don’t know what
she’s saying, but a few seconds later, the cop smiles in my direction. He
raises his drink as the overhead lights glint off his bald scalp. I nod in
return, not letting on the relief I feel. The cop’s not here to take me
away—not today, anyway.

“Here’s your
beer, Mr. Moretti.”

The waitress
plunks another Guinness down in front of me, the condensation glistening on the
bottle. I look up at her and she winks at me, her eyelashes thick with mascara.

“You can call me
Nick,” I tell her.

“I’m Bonnie,” she
says.

It might not be a
sexy name, but she’s a sexy girl. Young, pretty, and eager to please. And I
can’t help but notice she doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. She lingers by my
table, her eyes trained on mine.

“When’s your
break?” I ask her.

“Right now.”

I nod at the
empty seat to my right. “Would you like to join me, Bonnie?”

“I’d love to.”

Bonnie comes
around the table, but instead of sitting down, she puts one of her long, thin
hands on the place where my neck meets my shoulder. She rubs a muscle I didn’t
even know was tight till she got her hands on it. She leans in so that her lips
nearly touch my ear and murmurs, “Maybe I could sit with you, Nick?”

I grab the wheels
of my chair and roll myself away from the table, providing access to my lap. Bonnie’s
lithe little body slides onto my legs, and I put my left arm around her waist,
drawing her closer to me. I can’t feel the weight of her hips on my legs, but I
feel her skinny arms wrapping around my neck, I feel her lips pressing against
mine, and I feel her tongue penetrating my mouth. She’s got some tongue, this
girl. I bet she’s great in bed.

I already know
how this will go down. I may just be a schmuck
from Brooklyn, but I’m no dummy. Bonnie will make out with me for a while,
then we’ll go back to my place or maybe the back room, depending how much time
is left on her shift. And after that, she’s thinking I’ll be so grateful that
she can hit me up for whatever the hell she wants. She’s thinking she should be
rewarded handsomely for making out with the guy in the wheelchair.

She has no clue
who she’s dealing with.

I know how to
deal with Bonnie, just like I know how to deal with cops. I know the right
things to say to keep girls like Bonnie happy—most of the time. I can handle
her. It’s no problem.

But somehow
today, the thought of it exhausts me. I’m sick of every time I kiss a girl,
having to wonder what she wants. They all want something. Every goddamn one of them.

Except Jessie.
She wanted me for myself.

Bonnie shifts on
my lap and my right leg suddenly goes into spasm. It surprises her enough that
she stands up, her eyes widening as she watches the way my leg jumps up and
down on the footplate on its own volition. The first time my leg did that, I
had a similar surprised reaction.

“What are you
doing?” she asks, because she has no idea I can’t control it.

“Gimme a minute,”
I say through my teeth. My Brooklyn accent is almost undetectable except when
I’m agitated or with old friends from the neighborhood. I worked on getting rid
of it during my years at an Ivy League college followed by Harvard Business
School. But it’s still there, under the surface, waiting to show everyone who I
really am.

I readjust my
leg, hoping that will do the trick. The spasm subsides and I let out a breath.
But when I look up at Bonnie, I can see her enthusiasm has waned. She’s got a
tiny crease between her eyebrows.

“Are you going to
be okay?” she asks, like she thinks I’m gonna drop dead any second.

“Fine,” I mutter.
I can barely look at her. “You should go back to work though.”

Bonnie hesitates
for a moment, then nods. I watch her tight little ass disappear in the other
direction, but I don’t feel any regret about sending her away. I don’t want her.
Not really. It would have been fun—not gonna say it wouldn’t. But it would have
just been a distraction from the only girl I really want.

2 comments:

What a great surprise! I literally couldn't put it down. I've been reading you since your first publications here on PD, and I love the way your characters have evolved over the years. I love this story. I'm hooked! When will the next one be available?

I'm so thrilled you liked it!!!! A few people who read this one told me it was their favorite of all my books, but I just got a not-so-nice assessment on Goodreads, so I'm still waiting to see how this will be received.

I'm going to keep posting the next one on the blog but going to pre-release it in its entirety in maybe December.

Welcome!

This blog contains erotic and romantic stories featuring disabled male love interests. If you would like to contribute a story or would like to be a regular contributor, email me at paradevo(at)yahoo.com.